60 THB REALISTIC IDYL. 



Storm and Stress period, and attained classic calmness and self- 

 control. 



Between the two extremes, the pleasing foi-ni and unreal world 

 of Gessner and the rough naturalism of Miiller, stands Voss. 



While Gessner marked the culmination of the pastoral idyl, 



descriptive of an ideal state of existence, in Voss the realistic idyl 



of the classical period of German literature reached 

 Voss. 



its highest development. He wished to describe 



in his idyl actual simple life as it existed in Germany, and to do 

 this in the spirit of Theocritus. We are told that the idyls of 

 Theocritus had their roots in Homer. The study of Homer, too, 

 greatly influenced the character of the idyls of Voss. And so after 

 various deviations and wanderings the idyl comes back to the form 

 and spirit of the idyls of Theocritus, and the circle is complete. 



Johann Heinricb Voss^ (1751 — 1826) was born and lived in 

 Northern Germany, and it is the natural scenery and the life of 

 Northern Germany which is reflected in his works, especially in his 

 idyls. While struggling along in poverty as a private tutor he 

 sent some poems to Gottinger Masenahnanach (1772), and thus 

 began a correspondence with the editor Boie (afterwards his 

 brother-in-law), which led to his going to Gottingen in the same 

 year. He and some associates of similar bent of mind founded the 

 well-known Gottinger Dichterbund {Hainbund), a circle of poets 

 of no small importance in the history of literary Germany. He 

 also assumed the editorship of the Masenalmanach in Avhich most 

 of his idyls first appeared. From 1775 — 1802 he again lived in 

 Northern Germany, (at Wandsbeck, Otterndorf and Eutin), most 

 of the time as teacher and rector at a Gyranasium. These years^ 

 were the happiest and most productive years of his life: now he 

 wrote his idyls, carried on his classical studies, especially in Ho- 

 mer, and produced his incomparable translation of the Odyssey 



1 See Jolian Heinricb Voas in Gottinger Dichterb'ind of Deut. Nat. Lit.^ 

 edited by August Sauer.- Also Joliann Heinrich Voss by Wilhelm Herbst, 3 

 vols., 1872—1876. 



